LONDON -- The song Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead is on course to reach No. 4 on the United Kingdom's Official Singles Chart because of a Facebook campaign by opponents of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The death Monday of Thatcher, 87, from a stroke has prompted celebrations among some Britons who despise her still 23 years after she left office.

Thatcher was a Conservative Party prime minister who stripped state control of major industries, dismantled welfare state policies of the opposition Labor Party, and defeated union attempts to keep public subsidies of faltering mining operations.

A Facebook campaign called "Make Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead number one the week Thatcher dies," was launched on Monday. It urges people to download the tune.

The song is from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz and despite its age has been rising steadily on the chart that features the top-selling 200 singles -- by record sales and downloads -- in the U.K. each week.

The results of the chart are broadcast each Sunday by media outlets across the nation, including by the BBC.

The campaign comes as dignitaries worldwide are to arrive in London next week for Thatcher's funeral on Wednesday. Among those invited are all former U.S. presidents. Military units involved in the Falklands War that Thatcher waged successfully in 1982 will carry her coffin through the streets of London.

As of midnight April 10, the song had sold almost 20,000 copies and was a rising download on iTunes in the U.K. It is still some way behind Need U (100%) by Duke Dumont and A*M*E, which had sold 34,000 copies.

It remains to be seen whether the push for the Oz song -- an example of what some commentators in the U.K. have called "chartjacking" -- has sufficient momentum to move beyond the No. 4 spot. But even if it doesn't, it will be a victory for Thatcher's foes if it gets played on the BBC's Radio 1 chart show on Sunday.

The BBC may not play the recording as part of the show. It has declined to do so in the past for controversial songs, such as a push in the 1970s to play the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen.

"The Official Chart Show on Sunday is a historical and factual account of what the British public has been buying and we will make a decision about playing it when the final chart positions are clear," stated the BBC, which is heavily subsidized by British taxpayers and overseen by people in power.

Thatcher has many admirers in government, including current Prime Minister David Cameron. But in a special tribute session for Thatcher in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Labor Party member of parliament Michael Meacher accused Thatcher of using a "scorched earth policy" to defeat opponents.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Tony Blair, former British prime minister and a Labor Party member, said he owed a debt to Thatcher despite their dramatically different politics.

"When I came to power in 1997, some of the things that would have been difficult for me had, in a sense, been put in a framework that made it easier – things like trade union reform, privatizing some of the old state industries, some issues around taxation and so on," he said.

Some of Thatcher's detractors have waited years for this day. The campaign to make the classic Wizard of Oz song No. 1 the week Thatcher died was begun in 2007. But other songs are rising in the charts as well.

Elvis Costello's song Tramp the Dirt Down, composed to attack Thatcher, has seen a resurgence. The lyrics include the sentiment that when Thatcher is finally "in the ground; I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down."